"Not cool, Miss."

Her stomach was in knots, the kind that made it unbearable to breathe truly, the kind where you wrap your arms around your body, conscious of keeping yourself standing while you are in an intolerable fit of laughter.

"I-I- just," barely able to breathe the words out between the consumings of the situation, "what was that?" rising to see the composed man folding his arms across his chest. Matthew had been unimpressed with the blindside attempt to get rid of him.

"You have them completely wrapped around your finger! I will give you a solid four gold stars for what I just saw."

Matthew rolled his eyes at the cackling woman; he stepped forward towards the side of the arena, grabbing the tablet as he began the program.

"Four gold stars, this fucken smartass," he muttered.

"Uh-huh!" Eko straightened up from her fit of laughter, watching the man at the tablet, "and, by the way, we aren't even here tomorrow?"

"Catch on quick, don't ya," grinning to himself, he continued away with the tablet, "besides, I am not involved with her in any form, so I do not need to tell her when I am coming and going."

"You told me today where you were going?"

"Yes," nodding without pause, he turned back to her with a bland look, touché to that his mind contemplated, "well, I do have the courtesy to my guests Eko."

"So, I'm a guest?"

Matthew shrugged, unable to answer; Eko was captivated by the activation of the soft, warm lights on the floor before her. Gradually, they surrounded them, and the whole arena was a field of dim-litted lights.

"You can be a guest until you decide what you want to do," Matthew proposed.

"Interesting," she coyly began, watching the arena, "there's a lot of grey area in that."

"You are going to be dangerous to my health, aren't you?" cocking his head to the enigma of the woman in his presence.

The brunette stood back on her heel, studying him, triumphant almost, gloating with that smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

"I've been known to be."

Shaking his head, Matthew stepped forward and waved his arm, indicating the world that was transforming before them.

"This is what our elites train in," Matthew began, and with the technological advancements of the academy, the training arena unfolded before her, built to a specific design that was requested.

She didn't anticipate how advanced it had been as it took form, resembling a place rather than just an arena. It appeared that they couldn't entirely interact with the scene, but she still felt like she was being drawn into what she had seen before her.

It eclipsed her senses when a now long grassy field was at her ankles, and a magnificent navy blue sky shone above, a perfect spring day if she had ever seen one.

This arena was nothing but an impressive stretch of green land for as far as she could see.

"This is basic 101 in training that we will begin with," Matthew began, removing the basic hooded sweater from over his head and nearly his shirt, a simple black tee.

Eko, of course, in a moment of watching the jumper being removed, was gifted with the sight of his phenomenal upper body. The way his broad shoulders sprawled, or that his forearms and biceps were stretching his black shirt made it incredibly hard not to say fuck it to training and simply fuck him instead.

"I'm sure we'll breeze through this introductory course."

Tossing the jumper to the floor, Eko swallowed the pounding adrenaline in her senses and forced herself to concentrate on what he was actually saying.

"Sure, right. Of course!" Eko desperately needed to move before he caught her perving.

Thankfully she noticed the weapons to her left, hovering above the ground for her to select for the training program. She paced herself to the rack of weapons, and cheekily, it was then that she wanted to make him feel as uncomfortable in his body as he had of her.

"So tell me, Commander, a curious question?"

"By all means?"

"How many times have you slept with her? Is this sleeping with you a one-time thing, or... Have sex five times and get one free type of thing?"

Matthew froze over her forwardness, the cockiness- the little shit.

"Is that the type of conversation you really want to have? In here?"

Making his way to the weapons, Eko looked between a few of them, and she turned her head slightly. The shift of her brunette ponytail displayed the side of her face that was now smirking.

"I think we'll get to know each other better and faster if we just ask direct questions."

Nodding to that, Eko picked up an elongated staff, with the tip a point steel end, weightless in her hands. She moved the weapon around as though studying it.

"Cat—"

"-tania staff. I know," she smiled, finishing off his sentence.

"Impressive that you know that."

"There's a lot about me you'll come to learn. But I had asked you a question, Commander," there was the stare that told him that she would not relent in this.

"Very well," selecting a sword he preferred from the weapons line-up.

Just a meter from each other, his hand clasped the sword, pulling it towards him, and her sky-blue eyes narrowed as they studied him carefully.

"Yes, and as many times that keep me occupied. No, I don't keep the girls on a sex card, as you eloquently put it. How would a five sessions and getting one free 'card' even work? You come up with some dumb shit." scoffing and amused all at once.

"Exactly how many have you slept with?"

"Ah," running his sword down her Catania staff, "babe, one question at a time. I believe this will work both ways if you want to play this little getting-to-know-each-other game."

Oh, her grin widened, and her Catania staff grinded against his sword, pressing at him as he stepped backward, and she followed suit.

"What's your question babe?" Eko waved her staff, offering the question.

"What's your number, Eko?"

Not waiting for him to begin the session, Eko launched into the attack, and almost on instinct, Matthew blocked her. Surprisingly, she honestly hadn't expected he would counter her so sharply.

"Eager?" he replied cockily.

"I feel like my number would circa yours from the rumours."

"That's a triple-digit number Eko."

"Your reputation is quite well-known Mattie, so I'm confident."

With that nickname, he pushed her back with the force of his sword, but she was on her heel again and launching herself at him.

He blocked her and swung back, dancing about before him; she blocked him effortlessly with every attempt he took. Metal against metal echoed as the only sound.

"Matthew," he corrected her.

She dropped at the next attack and rolled away from him before she regained herself in her position to attack. Again, they effortlessly breezed amongst the arena as though they had been perfectly in sync with their training.

"Where does your ethic take you? Would you kill knowing it would be a means to end this war?"

"I wouldn't hesitate. No. You?" he breathed deeply as he blocked her move. Matthew caught hold of her wrist as she came down on the second attack, and he spun her away to counter it.

"Not for a moment in this war," he leered, waiting for the next move.

Eko pushed again in the offence.

"So, I shouldn't expect to find a sword through your heart on the battlefield because of your over-cockiness?"

He scoffed, "trust me, babe, that would far from happen."

She turned and countered that comment, and the next thing the man knew was the Catania staff's end was against his throat, and she had the leverage over him.

"Top or bottom," she asked with a devil's smile consuming him.

"Top," he purred, "I prefer the control."

With a quick turn, her body was countered, and Matthew's hand slipped around her waist, turning her sword against his throat still, and then her body was pinned against his own to the wall.

"You would love the kind of control I would take."

She grinded her body to his own; dangerous eyes leered as she bit her lip and pressed her sword more forcibly into his skin. How her intense gaze pressed at him, leaning a bit closer against the blade of his own sword to her skin.

He could feel the hot breath on his ear, purring in a way that made him nearly lose his edge.

"Do you have any idea what I want to do to you?" Matthew cocked his head slightly, steel meeting sky blue that held his gaze.

The minx smiled, very well aware, and as he stepped backward, he had enough room then to run his finger along the blade of the sword, and gently he pushed it away from his throat.

"Quite aware, Matthew."

How the man found it conflicting, yet enthralling that this temptress was forcing aside from him that he hadn't completely been aware he held. The kind that lost a level of control.

"Let's take this up a notch."

Nodding with a grin, Matthew took another step backward as Eko readjusted herself; breaking apart her Catania staff, smaller swords in both hands, she stepped into his space.

"Give me all you got, darling. Do not hold back with me," she winked, testing him and his patience, "I can take it."

How neither body moved, and she was dangerously close to him, too dangerous to be caught up like this.

Matthew briefly wondered what kind of magic she had over him like this. Why was this all too different from any of the other girls that flirted like this?

"You're walking on a dangerous line there, Eko," the darker tone warning her not to do this to him because the longer she was around, the more infatuated he was with her. Matthew hadn't known the kind of restraint he truthfully held with wanting someone in the way he did now.

Eko grinned, "I know."

Then she took a step back, and Matthew exhaled a breath of air that he didn't know he was holding in with her proximity. Her eyes were the thing that drew him in, those wicked risky sky-blue, heavenly eyes that she owned.

"Dangerous to your health and all," she quipped, knowing how forward she was with him, and even though she couldn't quite believe she was like this, he also did things to her that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Damn him and the cockiness he displayed or even that stupid, perfect, libido-wrenching smile that gets through to her after this short time.

Hell, she admitted, it was even his skills on the field that he demonstrated that got her heart going. It was a major turn-on knowing that she was entirely in sync with someone that way. She had never found someone like that, someone who instantly captivated her as he had.

There was some form of spark that enthralled her. Whatever it was, it drew her like Icarus to the sun.

"Ready when you are."

The arena darkened and changed; the land was now pavement instead of a lush grass field. Weapons drawn; he approached the woman, sword raised. Matthew swung it down as she countered the hit with her daggers; the metal clanging echoed again loudly on the first defence.

Turning and twisting in her fluid moments, Eko countered the sword again, the relentless hit that bared down on her Catania swords, matching every step he took forward with a step back.

He wouldn't win this sparring match, pupils expanding and contracting. A smile plagued her face before she heeled to the floor and, this time, swung in the effort of the relentless attack back.

Like a pirouetting dancer against the land, Matthew watched as she twirled fluidly in her movements, striking her swords into his own. She was faster than the most skilled soldier here, which intrigued him even further.

Something about her presence suddenly made the arena more alive than before, and he had been convinced that he had successfully purged the place of it a few moments ago.

Yet, at the same time, there was something about it that had his soul screaming rebellion with every moment that lingered on, something about the way she fought back with the same enjoyment that he gets.

Turning again, her Catania sword swung around her arms, instantly locking together to form her staff again. Eko shifted her weight and used the staff to swing under his knees as she dropped into a low-squatted position. Capping him so that he fell backward to the floor unexpectedly, he had caught off guard, having been transfixed on the woman rather than the fight.

A laugh of victory rang out, and blinking several times, Eko stood over his body, gloating in her defeat before she pulled her hand forward for him to take.

"You weren't even trying," she mused with that sultry arrogance.

"Not even close," reaching up and grabbing her hand, he pulled himself to his feet, grasping her hand still to his own. He intentionally pulled her closer to his chest, right up against solid muscle where it would get her feeling just as sexually frustrated as she had made him feel during this whole session.

The weight of his gaze was tangled at this point, like the steel she held in her hands.

"Since this isn't working...come get coffee with me," feeling his thumb run over her knuckles.

Eko was demanding of herself to remain strong; she wanted this tension to last; she loved this fun. She would have him before she left here, but in the meantime- there was some fun to be had, and he seemed to be temporary enough to numb this insanity that was her life.

"It's safe to assume our training is a distraction," he cocked his head to her with a flirtatious grin, "at this moment."

"Then coffee, your sexual tension is throwing us off."

"Me!" he laughed at her audacity and seriousness, even if that beautiful smile lingered for far longer than intended.

Dropping his arm, Matthew watched as Eko turned on her heel, making her way to the illuminated shelves to place her weapon back onto it.

"Well, if you want me," Eko turned and smirked at him, "come and get me."

Matthew stepped forward. What a dangerous remark she had placed between them, and she found that he was before her in a few short strides; languidly, he swept a hand up and under her chin.

"Want you in which way, Eko? Don't get me wrong, both involve ropes with your smart mouth, and it's an important distinction to make?"

Her eyes narrowed, leering at him, "bet the fan girls simply come on the spot with your mouth," tempting him now she pressed into him, driving him to the brink with that said smart mouth being the reason he would tie her up.

"What am I going to do with you?"

"I've already told you," eyebrow raised, and she found that he nodded, watching her closely—a breath away and intoxicatingly too close.

It was close enough for her to touch, to smell. He was divine, and she kept repeating that she would behave, at least for tonight.

"Coffee," he motioned to the exit, flaring that megawatt smile, unbelieving the type of woman before him.

Eko gave him a run for his money, and he was quite up for the challenge.

"It'll be safer if we weren't alone with how this is going."

"I don't mind an audience."

"Of course, you wouldn't," his last words said in laughter. He placed his sword onto the shelves, grabbed the minx's hand, and led her from the arena.

Back into an open environment where they would be safe.

He didn't know why he held his restraint, but something just told him that she wanted to play this game, and he would surely beat her at it.

---- ----

WHATTTT is happenninngg!!!! 

They can't just leave us like.... VOTE GUYS.... they can't get away with this BS!